SAXIFEAGES. 125 



They are all plants of humble growth, frequenting temperate 

 climates. 



The White Meadow Saxifrage (Saxifraga granulata), is our \ 

 / most common species. The intense whiteness of its somewhat / 

 I bell-shaped flowers, which grow several together, make it a 

 veiy attractive plant. Its leaves are round or kidney- shaped, 

 and bluntly lobed. The root hasfleshy grains . or knobs in it, 

 hence its Latin name. v77^A ^ C ^2*^^ / 



At the time when the doctrine of " signatures " was in vogue 

 these knobby roots were supposed to be a cure for swellings 

 and all excrescences growing upon the human frame. This 

 theory tried to prove that any resemblance in a plant showed 

 that it was an antidote to the disease of the part of the 

 human body to which it bore the likeness. Thus the spotted 

 leaf had a fancied likeness to the human lungs, and was 

 therefore declared to be a cure for consumption; and the 

 granules of the Saxifrage formed a remedy for hard excre- 

 scences. It was a superstitious, pagan-like foreshadowing of 

 the homoapathic rule, "Like cures like," only it stopped short 

 in surface-resemblance, instead of taking its stand on simili- 

 tude of nature. But all this has been exploded long ago, 

 and our little Meadow Saxifrage has now no useful service 

 to perform. 



The little Rue-leaved Saxifrage is pretty frequent, adorning 

 old walls with its tiny blossoms and leaves, more or less 

 coloured with red. I have gathered it on the ruins of Easby 

 Abbey, and on old walls about Richmond. 



The Mossy Saxifrage, or Eve's Cushion (S. hypnoides, 

 Plate VIIL, fig. 8), grows in the rocky parts of Swaledale, 

 both on the brink of the river and high upon the hills. It 

 forms large mossy plats, its leaves are much divided, and 

 their segments narrow ; and its clusters of bloom, though of a 

 less clear white and smaller, are scarcely less pretty than those 

 of the Meadow Saxifrage. 



The Purple Saxifrage grows freely among rocks about the 



